A wide range of vacuum cleaners is available on the market and includes upright cleaners, cylinder cleaners and hand-held cleaners. A cylinder vacuum cleaner normally has a main body containing a motor and fan assembly for drawing an airflow into the main body and separating apparatus for separating dirt and dust from the airflow. The separating apparatus may take the form of, for example, a cyclonic separator, a bag or a filter. A hose and wand assembly is connected to the main body and a cleaning tool is attached to the end of the wand remote from the main body so that the cleaning tool can be manoeuvred across the surface to be cleaned. A range of cleaning tools is often supplied so that a user can choose an appropriate tool for their cleaning task; for example a crevice tool or a brush tool. For general on-the-floor cleaning a cylinder vacuum cleaner is provided with a floor tool.
Many upright vacuum cleaners are provided with releasable hoses or wands so that they are able to operate in the manner of a cylinder machine. Floor tools are thus often provided with upright machines as well.
Floor tools generally have a head which engages with a floor surface. The head has a lower surface, commonly known as a soleplate. A suction opening is formed in the soleplate through which, in use, dirt and dust is drawn into the floor tool from the floor surface. It is useful for the head (or sometimes just the soleplate) to be pivotally connected to the remainder of the floor tool so that the head or soleplate can rock back and forth as the floor tool is pushed and pulled across the floor surface. The rocking motion allows the suction opening to remain in close proximity to the floor surface when the floor tool is pushed or pulled across the floor surface, preventing the soleplate from lifting away from the floor surface and reducing “skipping” of the floor tool. The rocking motion is particularly advantageous on carpeted surfaces because the rocking motion can cause parts of the soleplate to agitate the carpet. An example of this kind of floor tool is shown in WO 02/26098.
Further arrangements illustrating floor tools with pivoted soleplates are shown in EP 0353546, EP 0304609 and WO 03/039315. EP 0353546 discloses a floor tool which has a set of floor-engaging wheels and a soleplate. The duct connecting the head to the wand has a pivot point located directly above the axis of the wheels so that, when a user pushes forward on the wand, a downwardly-acting moment about the axis of the wheels pushes the soleplate onto the floor surface. EP 0304609 discloses a floor tool having a complicated arrangement of pivots which forces the head of the floor tool to rock back and forth when the floor tool is pushed back and forth across a floor surface. WO 03/039315 discloses a floor tool having a connecting duct which is pivoted in two locations relative to the soleplate. This prevents the soleplate from being lifted away from the floor surface on the backstroke of a cleaning motion.
In order to operate effectively, the above arrangements all require pivot points which are located some distance above the soleplate. This is required so that a sufficiently large moment is produced to act on the soleplate to allow the soleplate to move without undue effort from the user. However, a disadvantage of such arrangements is that the floor tool can have a significant depth. Consequently, a user cannot use the known floor tools to clean under low surfaces such as, for example, low furniture or cupboards.